In my recent foray into learning Dutch for my relocation to the Netherlands – I'm sure there'll be much to blog about – I fell victim to the siren song of the Green Owl again.
It's too tempting - you get showered with instant feedback, encouragement in-app rewards, social stuff etc. To be fair it is fun, and you really feel that you're doing something useful.
…except.
I last used it in earnest it to 'learn' German before a trip to Berlin. I racked up a 150+ day streak or something nuts like that, a good 15 mins per day which they deem pretty high, and then turned up utterly unable to speak or read anything of actual utility
die Frau ist kein Klavier am Dienstag spreche ich nicht mit dem Apfel
Now I don't think it was always like this, but it's for another blog post to enumerate the all of the ways it's been enshittified but suffice to say it's just not for me anymore.
Flashcards and Anki
On the other end of this gamification spectrum is just hard flashcards. Learn the thing on the other side of this card. Your reward is the number of stuff you've learned, and if you 'break your streak', that's on you - you're just not learning anything.
Now, people swear by Anki.
I've friends who've learned all the world flags, taught themselves to recognise basically any painter by their style etc. Really cool stuff. I think though, for whatever way I ingest language and information, it's not so good for me.
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